“I think we should go around the table and give examples so Hailey sees it more clearly.”
Avery started shaking his head and looked down at his food. “Jesus Christ, Cole.”
Abby ignored Avery and cleared her throat. “He has only come to see you play once since you’ve gone out with him and he started arguing with you as soon as you reached him after the game. According to him, there were just too many guys around you and God forbid you have male friends.”
Riley spoke up next. “You’ve come to at least four different games where it was obvious you had been crying and when we all asked if you were okay you said it was just something stupid with Gage. I have a feeling it was him being stupid. Even I know a guy shouldn’t make you cry so often. Or, like,at all.”
Hailey just blinked at Riley and tried to process what was going on around her. She was getting a bit overwhelmed so she brought her focus back to the french fries.
“He called me ‘Ching Chong’ once and I’m pretty sure he meant it in a racist way,” Josh said.
“I didn’t know he did that,” she said as she felt her stomach drop.
She noticed Riley stiffen next to Josh. “You never told me that.”
“Didn’t want to upset you,” Josh murmured to Riley. Then he turned back to Hailey. “Plus, you’re so pretty, Hailey. Like, even when you’re all sweaty after a game. And Gage is good looking, but puts all this effort into it with his gel and fancy suits. He has to buy his pretty, but you’re just naturally pretty. You’re way out of his league.”
All Hailey could do was gape at Josh’s comment. She didn’t think she heard the word pretty directed at her so many times in a row. It was definitely better than hearing her boyfriend was a bit racist.
“Every gift he’s ever given you has been something all of us know you wouldn’t like, and none of us are dating you,” Cole added.
“Seriously, even Cole could come up with better gifts than him,” Elena said.
“Oh my goodness, Elena, was that a compliment?”Cole joked. “Someone write down the date and time. It’s unlikely to happen again.”
Elena simply glared at Cole with murder in her eyes. Who knew why these two annoyed each other so much?
She turned back to Hailey before adding, “You’re also a different person when he’s around. Like you’re more closed off, less comfortable, less … happy.”
Starting to feel a little overheated, Hailey reached for her water and cursed under her breath that most of the ice had melted. It was so annoying when restaurants used that crushed ice that melted so quickly. She needed ice cubes with girth, goddammit. Every member of her team added their own example of why Gage wasn’t good enough for her and she felt conflicted. Even the guys from Cole’s gym mentioned how she had plenty of time to find the one. One of them legit looked like Thor so she trusted him the most out of the three of them. She was appreciative of everyone looking out for her, but she was also flabbergasted at how obvious the situation was to everyone but her.
Each of her teammates gave examples except Avery, and he was simply looking at Hailey with worry etched in his face and his elbows propped up on the table with his hands folded in front of his mouth.
Cole, a lifelong ball buster, did not miss the fact Avery hadn’t gone. “Avery, do you have anything to add?”
Hailey glanced at Cole when he said that and looked down at her plate and swallowed before looking up to meet Avery’s eyes. His haunting gray blue eyes that made Hailey think of the storm raging inside her at the moment. Avery looked at her for a beat while everyone else at the table turned toward him. Their flirtation or at least good friendship was obvious to everyone, and they held their breaths waiting for Avery to go along with their pleas.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them and looking back at Hailey.
“I’m sorry, Hailey. You deserve better.”
Hailey had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to do at this point. It was her first intervention, after all. She studied her plate like she’d be quizzed on its contents later and tried to process everything she just heard.
Abby reached out and rubbed her shoulder while Hailey just simmered in thought. She wasn’t sure how long the silence lasted around her, but she spent the rest of the meal deep in thought. It was a while before she noticed the table had moved on and everyone was having separate conversations. She looked around the table and now all eyes were off her … except Avery’s.
When she met them, he had his elbows on the table, hands together, looking at Hailey like she was the only one in the room with him. He was really good at makingher feel noticed like that.
He mouthed, “Are you okay?” and rubbed his hands together in exasperation.
Hailey just nodded and gave him a weak smile before bringing her attention back to the fries. She looked at them, then looked up at Avery as a mischievous grin took over her face. Avery just gazed at her and the corners of his mouth began to hitch up in response to that grin.
She grabbed a fry out of the overloaded basket and raised her eyebrows at Avery before saying, “I bet you I can throw more fries in your mouth than you can get in mine.”
Avery’s smile went from hesitant to full beaming, giving Hailey pause at just how arresting his smile was.
“You’re on,” he said while grabbing a fry of his own. They passed the time throwing fries at each other while eating and drinking water to sober back up. Although, that intervention was a total buzzkill for Hailey. Since she was driving, it was better to be cautious.
Neither of them noticed the glances coming their way from everyone else at the table. All Hailey could think was Gage would never have fun with her like this at a restaurant. It would embarrass him so much if she acted so “immature.” At that moment, Hailey decided she’d take everything everyone said seriously and really think about what she wanted to do.
